NEW YORK—From January 30 to February 9, the Divine Performing Arts held 15 performances of the Chinese New Year Spectacular for 11 consecutive days in the largest music hall in New York—Radio City Music Hall.
Zhengguo Kang is a senior lecturer of Chinese language at Yale University. He and his wife watched the New York Chinese New Year Splendor on February 9.
"The sound of drums was so inspiring and powerful. The classic dance and folk dance all manifested female's gentle beauty and gracefulness," he said of his experience watching the show.
He said in the use of stage techniques in the show, the backdrop was most worthy of praise, "The exhibition of image, sound, and light on the stage as background of where real people are performing was very well done. It has the effect of icing on cake. The lighting and background are well coordinated.
"Especially the sight of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas descending from the heaven, all audience members, whether from China or ones who do not understand Buddhism or traditional Chinese culture, have a true feeling like a celestial maiden is scattering flower petals, and [then] Master Buddha descends from the sky. This is the most successful scene in the stage design."
Detest the CCTV New Year Eve Gala Show but Can Not Avoid It
"Our TV at home can receive mainland stations. When I turned on the TV today (February 13,) I immediately saw the big celebration of CCTV New Year Eve Gala. I was already tired of the big celebration of CCTV New Year Eve Gala when I was in China, I can say I am even more sick of it now. It was bad and lame. I didn't watch it this year either."
Zhengguo Kang said that because he teaches Chinese, sometimes he has to watch CCTV programs and tape them for his students to help him in teaching, but he said he is "personally very disgusted at CCTV's programs."
"Even at friends' Chinese New Year's parties, the songs sung there were all related to red, the Party and the revolutions. It seems like I cannot escape from it even when I am already this far away from China. In the 50 years, the party culture has had enormous impact on everyone's speech and behavior, consciously or unconsciously, it penetrates every posture and every tune of ours."
It Is Refreshing
Kang said, "I am glad to see the Divine Performing Arts screenwriters, directors, and performers have the will to revive our traditional culture. They have made us see Buddha light, hear drum rhyme, and see classical dance. To westerners, they finally showed our real culture, uncolored by the Communist culture, and pure traditional culture in the New Year in New York. I feel very happy."
Kang said that, the Divine Performing Arts opened up a different channel that enables the western world to understand China, "Right now, the China that westerners come in touch with is all through official channels which provides partial views. Therefore, westerners associate the Chinese culture with what is presented on CCTV, what is shown in Chinese movies, and what is translated by the government.
"And today, at least what the U.S. audiences see is different, is something else, is a manifestation of human nature, a manifestation of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance."
Zhengguo Kang, from Xian province, moved to US in 1994 and has since been teaching Chinese in the Department of Asian Language of Yale University. He published a book of autobiography Confessions: An Innocent Life in Communist China in 2006. The book, which described his personal experience in China in detail, has obtained high academic praise, and was awarded Contemporary Chinese Language Contribution Prize by the Institute of Chinese Language Research.
Feeds